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Flash not coming to Ice Cream Sandwich--yet

Adobe's Flash should be made available to Ice Cream Sandwich at some point in the future. The question is, when exactly?

Don Reisinger
CNET contributor Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.
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Don Reisinger
2 min read

Although Flash has been a staple on Android, don't expect to find it in Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) just yet.

Speaking to Slashgear over the weekend, Google said that Ice Cream Sandwich will not come with Flash preinstalled nor will the platform be available in Android Market. The issue, Google told Slashgear, is that Adobe has yet to update its application to make it function properly on the new operating system.

Currently, Adobe's Flash Player only works with Android versions 2.2 to 3.2, according to its Android Market listing.

That should change soon, though. Speaking to Pocket-Lint today, Adobe told the site that Ice Cream Sandwich support is coming by the end of 2011. Future versions of Android, however, will not get Flash, the company told Pocket-Lint.

Ice Cream Sandwich is the latest version of Google's Android platform. The operating system comes with a refreshed design and a host of improvements. In a review of the operating system earlier this month, CNET's Jessica Dolcourt said that Ice Cream Sandwich succeeds "in moving Google forward, and reaffirming its staying power as a mobile OS." The operating system is making its debut on the Galaxy Nexus, and will come to a host of other smartphones in the coming months.

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But whether or not Flash's addition to Ice Cream Sandwich will really matter over time remains to be seen. After all, earlier this month, Adobe announced that it was abandoning its mobile Flash player to focus its efforts on helping HTML5 become the standard on smartphones and tablets.

"HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively," Adobe said in a statement announcing its decision. "This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms."

Neither Adobe nor Google immediately responded to CNET's request for comment on when Flash will be coming to Ice Cream Sandwich.

Update at 6:43 a.m. PT to include Pocket-Lint detail.